Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church

Part of a series on
Eastern Catholicism
Churches by rite
Alexandrian
Coptic Eritrean Ethiopian
West Syrian
Maronite Syriac Syro-Malankara
Armenian
Armenian Catholic
Byzantine
Albanian Belarusian Bulgarian Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro Greek Hungarian Italo-Greek Macedonian Melkite Romanian Russian Ruthenian Slovak Ukrainian
East Syrian
Chaldean Syro-Malabar
Catholicism portal Eastern Christianity portal

Part of a series on
Albanians
Nation
Albania Kosovo
Communities
Balkans Albania Kosovo Bulgaria Croatia Greece Macedonia Montenegro Serbia Turkey Diaspora Australia Egypt Germany Italy Romania Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom United States
Subgroups
Ghegs Tosks Arbëreshë Arbanasi Cham
Albanian culture
Architecture Art Cinema Clans Dress Literature Music Sport Cuisine Mythology Epic Poetry
Albanian language
Dialects Gheg Tosk Arvanitika Arbëresh Cham
Religion
Islam Orthodox Roman Catholicism Bektashism Protestantism Judaism Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church Kosovo Protestant Evangelical Church Italo-Albanian Catholic Church Orthodox Church in America Albanian Archdiocese
History
Origins History Timeline Lands

The Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church is an autonomous (in Latin, sui iuris) Byzantine Rite particular Church in communion with Rome, whose members live in Albania. It is not to be confused with the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church.

History

Catholic church in Vlora.

The conversion to Christianity of Albania took place under Latin influence in the north, under Greek in the south, and Christianity was the first and the oldest monotheistic religion of Albanian people. After the fifteenth-century Turkish conquest, some two thirds of the population accepted Islam. In 1967, Communist-ruled Albania was officially declared an atheist state.

Though the Greek liturgical rite was used in many of its churches, Albania was part of the patriarchate of Rome until 731, when Byzantine Emperor Leo III, in reprisal for the opposition of Pope Saint Gregory III to the emperor's iconoclast policy, attached the whole of eastern Illyricum to the patriarchate of Constantinople.

Catholics, of Latin Rite, were long established in the north of the country. A Catholic mission worked in the south between 1660, when the Orthodox Archbishop joined the Catholic Church, to 1765, when the effort was abandoned because of obstacles placed by the Turkish rulers. In 1895 a group of villages in Mali Shpati, southeast of Elbasan in central Albania, decided to become Catholic and demanded a Catholic bishop of their own rite, a proposal to which the consular representatives of Russia and Montenegro raised objections with the civil authorities. At about the same time, another group of Greek-Catholics arose, centred on an archimandrite who was a nephew of the Orthodox metropolitan. Numbers grew only to a small extent, but enough for southern Albania to become in 1939 a separate ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the care of an Apostolic Administrator. However, after less than seven years, the Administrator was expelled, and contact seemed lost with the Byzantine faithful, who found themselves under strict Communist rule.

Only in 1992 was it possible to appoint a new Apostolic Administrator. At first the post was given to the Holy See's diplomatic representative in Tirana, Archbishop Ivan Dias, who later became Archbishop of Mumbai and a cardinal. Archbishop Dias's successor as Apostolic Administrator of Southern Albania, not as Nuncio, is the Croatian-born Byzantine-Rite Franciscan Bishop Hil Kabashi, who was appointed in 1996.

The Apostolic Administratorship of Southern Albania has 3,200 Catholics in 9 parishes, with 11 churches, and is served by 4 diocesan and 10 religious priests, 10 male and 97 female religious, who administer 10 schools and 20 charitable institutions. The great majority of these are of Latin, not Byzantine, Rite.

See also

• Roman Catholicism in Albania
• Albanian Orthodox Church
• Eastern Catholic Churches
• Italo-Albanian Catholic Church

Sources

• Oriente Cattolico (Vatican City: The Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Churches, 1974)
• Annuario Pontificio.

Catholic Church Organizations, papacy, teachings and liturgical traditions History Jesus Twelve Apostles Early Christianity History of the papacy Ecumenical Councils Missions Great Schism of East Crusades Great Schism of West Protestant Reformation Counter-Reformation Catholic Church by country Vatican City index Hierarchy Pope Cardinals Patriarchs Major Archbishops Primates Metropolitans Archbishops Diocesan Bishops Coadjutor Bishops Auxiliary Bishops Titular Bishops Bishops Emeriti Priesthood Theology Body and Soul Divine Grace Dogma One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church Original sin Saints list Salvation Sermon on the Mount The Ten Commandments Trinity Worship Sacraments Baptism Confirmation Eucharist Penance Anointing of the Sick Last rites Holy Orders Matrimony Mariology Roman Catholic Mariology Assumption History of Mariology Immaculate Conception Mariology of the popes Mariology of the saints Mother of God Perpetual Virginity Veneration Doctors of the Church Gregory the Great Ambrose Augustine of Hippo Jerome John Chrysostom Basil of Caesarea Gregory of Nazianzus Athanasius of Alexandria Cyril of Alexandria Cyril of Jerusalem John of Damascus Bede the Venerable Ephrem the Syrian Thomas Aquinas Bonaventure Anselm of Canterbury Isidore of Seville Peter Chrysologus Leo the Great Peter Damian Bernard of Clairvaux Hilary of Poitiers Alphonsus Liguori Francis de Sales Peter Canisius John of the Cross Robert Bellarmine Albertus Magnus Anthony of Padua Lawrence of Brindisi Teresa of Ávila Catherine of Siena Thérèse of Lisieux John of Ávila Hildegard of Bingen Gregory of Narek Pope Francis Conclave Inauguration Theology Canonizations Visits Preceding popes Pope Benedict XVI Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul I Pope Paul VI Pope John XXIII Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XI Pope Benedict XV Pope Pius X Pope Leo XIII (more) Institutes and societies Assumptionists Augustinians Benedictines Capuchin Order Carmelites Carthusians Congregations of Holy Cross Dominican Order Franciscan orders Jesuits Oratory of Saint Philip Neri Associations of the Faithful International Federation of Catholic Parochial Youth Movements International Federation of Catholic Universities International Kolping Society Schoenstatt Movement International Union of Catholic Esperantists Sant'Egidio Community (more) Charity Aid to the Church in Need Caritas International Catholic Relief Services Vatican II Definition of the Church Dei verbum Gaudium et spes Lumen gentium Nostra aetate Sacrosanctum Concilium Particular churches Latin Church; Eastern Churches: Albanian Armenian Belarusian Bulgarian Chaldean Coptic Croatian Eritrean Ethiopian Georgian Greek Hungarian Italo-Albanian Macedonian Maronite Melkite Romanian Russian Ruthenian Slovak Syriac Syro-Malabar Syro-Malankara Ukrainian) Liturgical rites Alexandrian Ambrosian Anglican Use Antiochian Armenian Byzantine East Syrian Mozarabic Ordinariate Use Roman Sarum Catholicism portal Pope portal Index